Quote of the Moment

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Er...

So, I see last post I said I would be posting the following Tuesday. Well...it IS a Tuesday. Hold on. Yup, not midnight yet, so definitely a Tuesday.

This could be an extremely long post, unless I get sick of typing, and realize I should maybe go to bed and not get only four hours of sleep before getting up for work. hell, with me not posting for over two months, I'm sure I've lost the few people that do read my blog once in a while...

So, what has been going on with me? Moved. House needs more work than I thought (okay more work, right away now before things degrade beyond repair). We had to buy a new washer and dryer. :( And then a new stove. :(( (Is it possible to double frown, or is that just a frown with an oddly shaped chin?) Yes, I'm a bit kooky right now. Perhaps it's the adreneline rush of actually blogging. No, we are not fully unpacked. Yes, the house looks like a tornado, hurricane, and monsoon hit it all at once - minus wetness, I will admit it's at least quite dry in here, which is good because there is no way we can replace the roof right now.

Also, by the way, I have decided not to make excuses anymore. I haven't written for over two months. And I'm not going to say it was the moving, starting the part-time job, my grandmother dying, my desktop computer losing it and Dell's tech support being CRAP (Couldn't Rip-themselves-out-of A Paper-bag - so I had to fiddle with that acronym...that's what writers do), swollen and painful gums because of an infected wisdom tooth. No, not going to use any of those as excuses, even though all of them happened. It is my own fault, my own lack of ambition, my laziness, all my fault (I did say that already) for not writing. It hurts not to be writing, but I'm the only one to blame for not doing it. I need to make time, even if life is throwing everything and the kitchen sink at me (um, I mean frozen kitchen sink pipes - yes we had those the weekend it got in the teens and below in Wisconsin, around the same time my grandmother died, the comp gave me the finger, and I could barely eat because my mouth hurt so much).

I said I would stop making excuses, not stop whining and complaining. I can't stop that. I'm good at that. And we all know we shouldn't ignore stuff we're good at.

Well, under the wire, I was able to get a ticket for WisCon, and I sent in the first 8k of Daina's Dance for the WisCon Writing Workshop. I miss the sweet music of my words and ideas being ripped to shreds by one person in the space of five minutes. Didn't I go over the masochist in me in a past post? Anyway, I'm hoping it will get me writing again, although I still intend to attempt to do so before then. Blogging is a start. If I'm not too late, I will also try to sign up for the Broad Universe Rapidfire Reading.

The query to Luna is still out there. I might have received an e-mail rejection for a story somewhere in the madness of the last two months (and that was the last story I actually had out there - oh my, am I a bad, bad girl).

I have been reading lots because it is the only way I can relax during lunch while at work, and also on the bus on the way home. Here is my list of read it, or know you will die without having known the wonders of these novels (this was supposed to come out sounding like a curse - I don't think I quite managed it well enough this time): Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder, Play Dead by Mike Arnzen, Pyramids by Terry Pratchett, Sometimes After Sunset by Tanith Lee. So, I've only read good books lately - that IS a good thing.

While I was reading Play Dead, I came up with this wild idea. See, I love it when stuff I read gives me ideas. It is not so good when I become so obssessed with the idea at work that it's hard to concentrate on work. Why is it I always want to write the most when I'm at work? :p Anyway, Arnzen's book has to do with making a deack of playing cards (note that this statement is an UNDERstatement - read the book and find out), and he also has some Tarot mixed in. Well, being Wiccan and all, and attempting to make my own Tarot deck (not like in Arnzen's book - colored pencil and pens work just fine for me) numerous times in the past, I was thinking it would also be interesting to write a novel or stories one day surroundin the Tarot. Then as I read this novel, the gears started moving (that hamster in my brain needed to be overfed maybe, it was hard to get him to run on the wheel - but once he gets going...just think of the run to the hills song). Maybe I could mix Wicca (since I feel I have been lacking on the spiritual need end lately), the drawing of the cards, plus writing. A short story for each Tarot card! Yes, that means 78 stories. And to top it off I thought it would be great if each story stood alone, but in the end they all wove together in this beautiful connected web - having a world that seeps into our own world, so I can have urban fantasy as well as high fantasy stories in that mix of 78! And the world's name will be Fate, and there are these 3 cats where you will see at least one in each of the stories (one of the connectors), but they are of course not just cats (see my Tarot deck I have been attempting to do is called Cat Enchantress - cat eyes in the background and an all female figure deck)...I was thinking the one with red eyes should be a calico (yes, Amara is still a brat). And I also have this flower design for the cards, and that could somehow be another connector. Yes, I am nuts. No, I have no idea what any of the 78 stories will be about yet. Yes, this is a monumental project. One of those epics, like Stephen King's Dark Tower series, except that I'm likely to die before I complete it. And again, yes, I am nuts. But I really want to try it. I just have to make sure it isn't the only thing that takes over when it comes to writing. It is a nice way to touch many parts of my inner self. Bah, that's sounds way too philosophical. That must mean it is getting late and I should go to sleep.

I promise not to go two months again before I update. And here's hoping I can get back into writing soon again - I really need to, otherwise that hamster in my head is going to have way too many screws loose (hm, that could be a double metaphor...). Happy writing all!

1 comment:

Wow! Great to see the creative flames stoking with such energy! I say go for it with the tarot book... "write what you know," as they say! But you might want to look into The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino and Last Call by Tim Powers for inspiration (and to see what cards have already been played, so to speak, since they are a little similar to your idea in some ways).

About Me

Alexa Grave loves to tell stories, but sometimes her characters decide to tell the stories for her. When she's not being dragged around by her characters, she can be found blogging on anything she thinks may interest her readers. Humor is intended in many of her posts, but if you can't see it, please humor her! Oh, and she has an M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction.